City Hall, Edina, Minn.

   While there’s a certain amount of prestige with getting in the movies, it isn’t exactly the impression you want to leave with the public, especially in this toney Minneapolis suburb that’s home to some of the Midwest’s top CEOs.
   It’s not that Edina city officials didn’t know they needed more room. It’s just that it took some time and political will – and a good construction-management company – to pull everything together.
   However, it took a weak economy, and the use of some copper and natural stone, to put the finishing touches on a municipal building any community would treasure.
   Eric Anderson, Edina’s former deputy city manager and the point man for the project, explains the former city hall’s brush with fame came when its police-department office was chosen to double for the Brainerd, Minn., police department in the 1996 Academy Award®-winning Fargo.
   “The Brainerd police department was much too sophisticated for the filming of that movie,” says Anderson. “The Edina city hall was the most-antiquated building they could find at the time to use. It was also the mayor’s favorite story to tell as he walked around talking about the city’s needs.”
   The old city hall wasn’t actually that old – Anderson says it was erected in the early 1950s – and when it opened, it housed all the city’s operations, including the police and fire departments, in 25,000 ft². However, what sufficed for a community of 10,000 wasn’t doing the trick as the city approached 50,000 residents, nor was 5,000 ft² of space enough for a police department rapidly approaching 50 officers, plus civilian staff. (The fire department had relocated to its own building in another part of town.)
   “We have a sergeant who handles each of our shifts – day shift, mid-shift, night shift and flex shift,” Anderson explains. “They all shared one desk and one phone. Wherever we could find a nook or cranny, we’d put an office.”
   The department’s dispatchers were equally crowded. Even worse, the department’s holding cells for prisoners were deemed unsafe for those on both sides of the bars. It was also making it increasing difficult to get and keep good officers.
   Nor was it presenting a good image for a community that Anderson says considers itself preeminent among Minneapolis suburbs, and serves as home to the owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball team and the CEO of Target Corp., among others.
   It’s not that city officials weren’t aware of their need for more space, either. However, coming up with a workable answer to their needs took time.
   Certainly one major question was whether to relocate the city hall to another part of the community. Another was finding options to fit an expanded building onto the pie-shaped piece of property the city owns at the site.
   The first glint of an answer came when a development began going up across the highway from city hall. Because of a Minnesota program called tax-increment financing, the city expanded the development area and used it to build a senior center and a new library.
   That, in turn, allowed the city to obtain the existing county-owned library that was next to city hall. Anderson says the first thought was to remodel the old library building into a new police department.
   “However, the bids came in very high because of what you need to do to refurbish a secure police department,” Anderson says. “At that point, we decided to go with a new facility that we could build on the library site. That way, we could still live in the existing confines of city hall during construction.”
   After the decision to build something new, the project moved ahead quickly. Anderson says one benefit the city had was its long association with Boarman Kroos Vogel (BKV) Group. The Minneapolis-based design firm worked with the city on space needs since the mid-1990s, and the firm also designed the rejected library remodel.
   Anderson says it wasn’t only BKV’s long experience with Edina that made the firm so attractive for designing a new city hall.
   “BKV has done a variety of city halls, police and fire departments, and those are unique facilities,” says Anderson. “It’s not like designing a standard office building. For instance, over on the police department side of our new building, they put shoulder-level burnished block because the guys wear gun belts, and they can destroy sheetrock just by walking by.”
   Although not anticipated, Anderson says in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the city also realized it also had a good window to launch a major construction project as many firms were looking for work.
   Because of its experience with high bids on the library remodel, the city also decided to go with the construction-manager approach to building the new city hall.
   “We wanted the ability to have multiple-bid packages,” Anderson explains. “That way, if we had one bid package that was bad, we could rebid it and still keep going. So, we interviewed four construction companies and selected Adolfson and Peterson Construction to be our construction manager.”
   Anderson adds that the Minneapolis-based firm did an outstanding job of working closely with both city officials and the architects to keep the costs of the building in line while determining which directions to go.
   David Molda, Adolfson and Peterson’s senior vice president of operations, says that company works in both the public and private sectors, and the Edina City Hall job was fairly typical of what the firm does. The company has also worked with BKV Group on a number of projects.
   “We reviewed the drawings as they were being produced and then we’d put them out as bid packages,” says Molda. “We couldn’t limit who submitted bids because this was a public project, but we did identify subcontractors we wanted to work with.”
   While the architect and construction manager were bringing the interior plans to fruition, the task of determining the building’s appearance was shouldered by the Edina city council.
   “The council wanted to be involved in making sure the building fit in the existing neighborhood and having the public spaces be places people would remember,” says Anderson. “The new library and the senior center are more of a traditional brick, and we knew we didn’t want something like that.”
   Instead, the council focused on two commercial areas in the community and a residential neighborhood dating back to the 1920s, all of which utilize different varieties of Wisconsin limestone, many in a random ashlar pattern. Some of the buildings, including a local church, incorporate copper accents.
   “It was an interesting process with them,” says Bill Baxley, design partner for BKV Group. “A lot of them had some preconceptions about doing a more traditional-looking structure. The asset for them with the stone and copper was its permanence. This is a public building and they wanted it to represent and reflect the community.”
   Ultimately, Anderson says the council liked the idea of having, “a living building,” with the copper, particularly, changing from year to year. While some public concern was expressed over the use of the materials, it didn’t really add that much to the finished cost.
   “The entire cost of the building was just short of $11 million, so as a percentage it wasn’t that much,” Anderson says. “And, it fits the community beautifully.”
   John Huyett, a senior project manager at Adolfson and Peterson who handled the bids on the project, explains that after the architects had identified a couple different stone options, the masonry subcontractors were asked to submit their bids with quotes on the materials.
   Based on its bid, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.-based Serice Concrete and Masonry became the masonry subcontractor. Serice’s vice president, Dave Bornhoeft, says the job attracted the comapany because of the quality of the job and because it’s finding fewer opportunities to do this type of natural-stone exterior as customers opt for less-expensive alternatives.
    Bornhoeft says to get the job he worked closely with the two stone suppliers that were acceptable to the project managers. Serice won the bid working with Twin City Brick Co. of Savage, Minn.
   Because of the random ashlar pattern, Bornhoeft says the project involved about 10 different sizes of stone.
   “We probably had 12-15 guys on the job, and the natural stone took about two-and-a-half months,” he says. “It’s just a type-S mortar with wall ties. Some of the areas back up on block,and some of it was tied into steel studs and sheeting.
   “We were real pleased with the job. It looks very nice.”
   Jay LaCount, the Twin City Brick Co. sales rep that handled the job, explains that – as with the architects – he’d been working with the city of Edina for some time.
   “When it started out, they were looking to match the brick on the old library,” he explains. “Then, when they decided to tear down the old library, we started showing stone samples to the architects. There’s similar stone in a couple locations in the city, and we just started working with BKV Group on the stone selection.”
   BVK Group’s Baxley says that LaCount did an exceptional job helping with the stone selection.
   “They were absolutely instrumental in terms of getting the right stone and matching it for us,” he says. “There’s a beautiful church down the road with the same type stone; we pulled some samples and talked with Jay, and he did the rest.”
   Ultimately, the decision was made to go with a Fond du Lac limestone. Due to the random ashlar pattern, LaCount says the project incorporates pieces in sizes from 2”-12” in height and 6”-36” in length. Because of the timeframe of the project, he adds the quarry had no problem supplying the stone as installation progressed.
   Actual construction of the job began in December 2002, and Adolfson and Peterson’s Huyett says the company finished with punch-list items in February of 2004.
    “It worked very well and it’s a beautiful project,” Huyett says.
   Designer Baxley agrees.
   “It’s exceeded our expectations,” he says. “Everybody has received the building in a tremendous way, the stone is doing what we thought it was going to do, and it’s something everybody is proud of.”
   Anderson says the project is a success from the city’s standpoint, as well. Employee morale is up, especially in the police department, which now has 25,000 ft² of space and holding cells that meet state requirements.
   And, much of the fuss that seemed to be generated by the stone and copper accents died down as the metal has started its aging process.
   “Now, we don’t get anything other than compliments, although I’m sure as with any project there are people who don’t like it,” Anderson concludes. “However, this is a town where people understand the benefit of good development. Good development – including City Hall – is what’s unique about Edina.”

Client: City of Edina, Minn.
Architect: Boarman Kroos Vogel (BKV) Group, Minneapolis
Construction Management Company: Adolfson and Peterson Construction, Minneapolis
Stone Subcontractor/Installer: Serice Concrete and Masonry, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
Stone Supplier: Twin City Brick Co., Savage, Minn.

This article first appeared in the January 2006 print edition of Stone Business. © 2006 Western Business Media Inc.